Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 16
A Pillow of Green Porcelain綠瓷枕
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 16 The collected writings of Yi Gyubo of Goryeo, gathered and cut in woodblock by his son Yi Ham in 1241 and revised and enlarged by his grandson Yi Ikbae in 1251. It holds poems and rhapsodies, memorials and reports sent up to the king, records written for temples and pagodas, stele and tomb inscriptions, letters and prefaces, and the state letters that passed to and from the Mongols during the invasions. The Lay of King Dongmyeong, which sings the founder of Goguryeo, stands in volume 3 of the first collection, and the daily life of a man who called himself the White Cloud Layman — with his wine, his zither and his verse — fills the later collection. The book closes with the last poem he wrote as his eyes failed and he laid down the brush, and with the dirge and tomb inscription others made for him after his death.
綠瓷琢枕澄於水。入手如捫玉肌膩。跳身愼勿入其裏。擾擾黃梁夢中事。邯鄲靑軥何必恥。
A pillow carved from green porcelain, clearer than water; taking it in the hand is like touching smooth flesh of jade. Take care not to leap with your body and enter into it — within are the affairs of the confused Dream of the Yellow Millet (黃粱夢). And why need one be ashamed even of the green yoke of Handan (邯鄲)?